In the Championship – Wigan and Gillingham say goodbye

Nathan Ellington - the league's leading scorer got Wigan's third as they clinched promotion at the Concrete Jungle

Lee McCulloch and Jason Roberts got those goals and Nathan Ellington, the league’s leading scorer, added a third close to the end. The Royals got a stoppage time goal but it was nothing more than a consolation.

What was happening at Brighton was of no consequence now at the top end of the table, unless Ipswich were winning by about sixteen goals. They did take an early lead through Shefki Kuqi but that was quickly wiped out at the other end by Adam Virgo.

If the draw was of no use to Ipswich, who will now be in the play offs again, it certainly was for Brighton. They were one of three clubs under the threat of joining Forest and Rotherham in League One next season and as it turned out they needed that point.

I think Brighton would have been the choice of most Burnley fans for the drop, a journey of almost 300 miles to a ground nowhere near fit to stage league football is hardly something to look forward to.

Crewe, without a win since New Year’s Day, started the day in that last relegation place and it looked black for them when they went a goal down, scored by their former striker Dele Adebola.

Amazingly they turned it round in the second half to win it 2-1 and that focused all the intention on the City Ground where Forest were playing hosts to Gillingham.

The Gills were a goal down but came back to take the lead through and Andy Melville own goal and a second from Mamady Sidibe with just thirteen minutes to go. Stan Ternent’s fight against the drop looked won but with just five minutes of normal time left disaster struck when Eugen Bopp scored an equaliser for Forest.

Eugen Bopp - his goal ended Gillingham's five year stay in the league

I’m sure there will be plenty of sympathy from Clarets fans for Stan but at least it does remove on long journey for next season.

Reading’s defeat at Wigan had ensured a place in the play offs for West Ham but they made sure in any case with a win at Watford where Adrian Boothroyd could only look up and admire the opposition.

Anton Ferdinand got his first goal before two penalties completed the scoring with Marlon Harewood converting for West Ham before Heidar Helguson converted a late spot kick for Watford.

Like last year the Hammers will play Ipswich now although this time with the first leg at the Boleyn Ground whilst the other play off match sees Derby take on Preston.

The two met yesterday with Derby winning comfortably at Pride Park, not as though that will have any influence on what might happen next week as the two sides play each other twice more.

Champions Sunderland, relegated to a nothing match this week, beat Stoke 1-0 in front of a near full house at the Stadium of Light. A headed goal by Carl Robinson from a Liam Lawrence was enough to win the game before the partying got underway on Wearside.

The rest of the games were nothing games and it was no surprise to see that they provided us with three 0-0 draws.

The big exception was at Wolves where Glenn Hoddle’s in form side sorted out Warnock’s Blades with a 4-2 win. Hoddle is expected to sign a new deal this week that will keep him at Molineux for the foreseeable future. Incredibly he’s still lost just one league game since taking the job in December.

That’s it for this week, in fact that’s it for the season. Our last stats include average attendances in the division with the Clarets falling another place to 18^th since we last published them.

We’ll keep an eye on the play offs and over the summer as players come and go before we get underway again in the Championship. And we’re there for a sixth successive season.